Last outpost

That's a bit melodramatic, but the Co-op gift shop sells a T-shirt that says "Resolute isn't the end of the world, but you can see it from here." I'm up here, waiting for a charter flight to Devon Island tomorrow.

( More travel and obscure aviation details and some photos... )

Waiting on weather

I'm still in Resolute... it's snowing this morning. And there are no Twin Otter charters available until after dinnertime, if then, so I've become the local coordination guy for Pascal. There's an aircraft from Ottawa due in in 2 hours... but the ILS is inoperative, and ceilings are only 200 feet, so they may hold it in Iqualuit. Six more people arriving for Devon Island, but without charters available through Polar Shelf, they'll just join me in waiting. And the hotel has only eight rooms... we'll all double-up, plus a couple of them will probably sleep in a converted cargo container ("Annex 2") next door. Still, it's heated, with real toilets...

I went by the tiny local Anglican church this morning (but the service was in Iniktuit), then walked around Resolute and ran into Andy, who was on Devon Island with us 3 years ago doing a story for Men's Journal... he's doing a piece this time on High Arctic politics and the underlying economy.

Waiting for the next stage

Of life, of this trip, of field work. I'm ready to go, or at least as ready as I'll ever be. Right now I'm still waiting in Resolute -- there was no after-dinner plane. Maybe late tomorrow morning... at least this gives me the chance to call customs myself about the impounded gravity meter.

Once all air traffic was cancelled, several of us went with the Co-op hotel manager on a tour of Resolute... all of the streets, the church, the RCMP post, the tank farm, the separate Catholic and Anglican cemetaries (surprising, considering the permafrost is only a foot below the surface) a WWII-vintage aircraft crash site, and the remains of an ancient Thule settlement. The photo shows me outside one of the excavated homes (note the muskox skull)...
( photo follows )